Bruges or Ghent?

Neither city is a beach destination, and the North Sea at about 18°C in late summer is better for paddling than for swimming. Bruges has the coast much closer, with Blankenberge about fifteen minutes away by train against roughly an hour from Ghent to Ostend, so a sunny half-day by the sea is easier to fit in.

Ghent has something Bruges lacks, though: the Blaarmeersen on its western edge, a lake with a sandy shore and supervised swimming in summer, where local families go on hot days.

Both cities cook the same Flemish dishes, waterzooi, beef stewed in beer and mussels with frites, and both pour long Trappist and abbey lists in old brown cafés. Ghent does it with more range: the lanes of the Patershol hold many of the better restaurants, cuberdons and the strong local mustard add local character, and meat-free cooking is a long habit there.

In Bruges the tourist squares drag the everyday standard down with set menus for day-trippers, and its best cooking is mostly in villages and farmhouses outside town. Its stronger card is chocolate, which fills shop windows across the centre.

Both are among the finest medieval centres in northern Europe, and both have van Eyck, so the difference is in feel. Bruges is the more complete picture: its whole centre of canals, gables and almshouses is UNESCO-listed, and the Groeninge, Memling's paintings in St John's Hospital and Michelangelo's Madonna in the Church of Our Lady all fit into a two-day circuit.

Ghent is a working city around its monuments, with the Graslei and Korenlei facing each other across the Leie, the moated Gravensteen and the Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavo's. It adds modern collections such as the SMAK and the Design Museum, which Bruges lacks, and it needs an extra day.

This is where the two part company. An evening in Bruges is a long session of strong ale in a vaulted cellar or a brown café near the Eiermarkt or 't Zand, then a walk along the canals, and most of the centre is asleep by midnight on weeknights.

Ghent's university gives it a much younger crowd. The Overpoort runs loud and late in term time, the cafés of the Vrijdagmarkt and Oudburg stay busy, and on summer evenings people crowd the quaysides with drinks. Neither has a big club scene, but Ghent gives you a real night out where Bruges gives you a quiet one.

The poplar-lined towpath to Damme is the classic ride out of Bruges, and the coast is close enough for blustery walks in the dunes and birdwatching at the Zwin salt marsh near Knokke. With the sea that much nearer, it has a little more variety within easy reach.

Ghent's outdoors follows the Leie south-west through meadows to Sint-Martens-Latem, with birds in the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland and kayaking and rowing on the Blaarmeersen lake. The country around both is the same flat Flemish farmland, good for an afternoon on a bike and nothing more dramatic.

Both make superb bases, because Flanders is small, trains are frequent and the two are under half an hour apart. Ghent sits more centrally, with Brussels about half an hour away and Antwerp under an hour, so it is the easier choice for a week of rail trips into Brabant.

Bruges leans towards the west and the sea. Damme is a bike ride away, Ostend and Knokke are a short hop, and the First World War sites around Ypres are about an hour off.

Younger children get a little more in Bruges. Boudewijn Seapark on the edge of town makes a full day out, the chocolate and frites museums and the swans at the Minnewater fill shorter gaps, and sandcastles at Blankenberge are only a short train ride away.

Ghent's favourite is the Gravensteen, with its battlements and armour, followed by the old toys at the House of Alijn and the playgrounds and lake beach at the Blaarmeersen. For a zoo or a theme park, though, you have to leave town. The cobbles make pushing a pushchair hard work in both.

They are equally easy to get around. In Bruges almost everything lies inside the egg-shaped canal ring, which you can cross on foot in about half an hour. Ghent spreads a little wider, so the trams are useful, especially from Gent-Sint-Pieters station, a twenty-minute walk south of the centre. In both, a bike is the local way about and a car only gets in the way.

Chocolate and Belgian beer are the best things to take home from either city, and luxury shopping is thin in both. Bruges is mostly souvenirs. Bobbin lace is its historic craft, though much of it in the windows is imported, the shops on Steenstraat are mostly chains, and the markets on 't Zand and along the Dijver are good for a browse.

Ghent has a little more depth for a wander: independent fashion and design on the Serpentstraat and Onderbergen, vintage around the student quarter, the Sunday flower market on the Kouter, and cuberdons and the city's mustard to add to the bag.

Neither is cheap, and there is little between them. Bruges feels the weight of its visitors more, with rooms inside the canal ring and meals on the main squares priced for the crowds, so staying midweek and eating on the side streets makes a real difference. Ghent's hotels are more moderate for most of the year, though a sit-down dinner with a few beers adds up just as quickly.

Ghent has much more on stage. Its nineteenth-century opera house is one half of the Flemish national opera and ballet, NTGent has a name well beyond Belgium for bold theatre, mostly in Dutch, and De Bijloke and the arts centre on the Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat add classical music, concerts and dance.

Bruges is strong in one area: the Concertgebouw for early music, chamber music and contemporary dance, along with its long-running summer festival of early music. Beyond that it has the Stadsschouwburg, the Belfry carillon and church concerts, but no opera, and for a fuller evening the obvious move is the train to Ghent.

Spa-goers will find only hotel spas and a few day spas in Bruges, and even fewer options in Ghent, so here relaxing means finding quiet. Bruges is the better place for it. Once the tour groups leave, its canals go very still in the early morning and evening, and the Langestraat side of town stays calm through the middle of the day.

Ghent has quiet corners of its own, such as the walled gardens of its beguinages, walks along the Coupure, long café afternoons and sleepy Sundays. It is a bigger, busier city with a student crowd out at night, though, so it works as a restful base after a day of sightseeing rather than a retreat in itself.